The government of Uttar Pradesh has signed an agreement with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Development Corporation for the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which will oversee the creation of an integrated industrial township spread over 750 acres in the Greater Noida region.

The DMIC spans around 1,500 km and Uttar Pradesh is one of the states involved in the project. The township would be fully developed over 30 years, in six phases of five years each. The master plan for the township is ready and awaiting approval.

An official of the UP government said that the township, located at the border of Greater Noida, towards the south east, will have over 50 per cent of land dedicated to industries with an emphasis on IT parks, biotechnology and R&D. “This is one of the projects which are coming up along the DMIC and is a precursor to a larger investment region, or a smart city, located close to it, called the Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad Investment Region (DNGIR) which will be developed on similar lines as the township,” the official said.

Under the agreement for the township, the state government has allotted land to the DMIC Development Corporation. The DMIC Trust, which is the funding agency for the project, has contributed around Rs 620 crore for the development of the trunk infrastructure. “Since it is a 50:50 partnership between the two agencies, the acquisition value of the land equals around Rs 620 crore and no development charges have been added,” the official added.

Sources say that the DNGIR, is only one of the approximately 25 smart cities that have been planned over multiple phases from Dadri to Mumbai within a parallel stretch spanning 300 kms around the DMIC and running along it. The DNGIR will be spread over 50,000 acres.

A source said that in the first phase, seven smart cities have been planned. There would be one each in UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and two in Gujarat. “SPVs will be created for all of them in the future to oversee their construction. But right now, consultants are working on plans of these cities that concern development of trunk infrastructure. No strict timelines have been attached to these projects,” the source said.

Another official explained that since the DMIC is intersecting with Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor at Dadri in UP, a multimodal logistics hub was being planned there along with a multimodal transport hub planned.

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